By Laura Berland
Nowhere are racial disparities more starkly on display than in our nation’s prison system. African-Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at more than five times the rate of whites, and at least ten times the rate in five states.
If you think Massachusetts is an exception to this terrible reality, you would be mistaken. While black and brown people make up 20% of Massachusetts residents, they make up 55% of the state’s prison population. Over 1,000 men and women serve life without parole sentences in Massachusetts, the fifth-highest rate in the country. Our parole board is so dysfunctional that it has a backlog of over 250 commutation and pardon petitions that have not been acted on.
As the vast majority of people in prison are sentenced by the states rather than the federal government, it is imperative to direct reform efforts at the state level if we are serious about addressing this issue.
Data tracking of racial disparities in incarceration shows numerous ways that communities of color are disproportionally targeted. Blacks are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for drug possession despite overwhelming evidence that whites and blacks use drugs at roughly the same rates. Then there is the policing that targets specific areas either covertly or overtly as in the case of “stop and frisk.” These are just a couple of examples.
The negative impacts of incarceration extend well beyond the actual sentence and include limited job prospects, housing instability, family disruption, stigma, and disenfranchisement. Because of concentrations of poverty and imprisonment in certain areas, entire communities feel these negative impacts.
Crime has been steadily declining since 1990 but police department budgets keep growing, and the endless building of prisons and jails continues. There are so many vested interests in keeping and expanding the prison and jail population, from the food and phone vendors to the Correction Officers’ Union, that it has become a beast that continually needs to be fed.
The massive protests signal that the time has come for a different approach. As budget season is upon us, let’s turn the words “black lives matter” into meaningful action. Currently, there is a proposal in the Massachusetts legislature to build a $50 million women’s prison (roughly 500 women are currently incarcerated in Massachusetts) as well as regional lockup for pre-trial detainees.
Let’s demand that our state representatives and senators say no to more prisons and jails and increased policing and instead direct funding towards investment in communities of color through community-based organizations. Let’s seize the moment to put maximum effort towards true criminal “justice” reform legislation that begins to address the brutalization of people of color through mass incarceration.
Laura Berland
15 Hillside Rd., Lincoln
”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
Thank you for this Laura.
Well reasoned and informative article. I had no idea how high Massachusetts incarceration rates were—especially those hopeless cases of people serving life without parole. Let’s ‘defund’ prison bUilding and reform police practices like Camden, NJ did.